33 of Oregon’s 36 counties will get $102 million in Timber Payments in the next year. Congress extended the payments for another year, but U.S. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden says these payments will eventually stop, and counties must be prepared to replace the funding so they can pay for their schools and roads. “So if we do those two things, if we focus first on getting people back in the woods and second, zero in on getting more friends in the Congress on both sides of the aisle on how to protect the resource dependent communities.”

Wyden says he got support from across the aisle on past Timber Payment legislation. Going forward, he says we have to come up with long term solutions to create more jobs in the woods.